The purpose of this petition is to address the education budget cuts implemented by the Texas State Senate, House of Representatives and Governor Rick Perry. Texas already ranks near the bottom of every educational statistical category. These budget cuts further cripple our children's chances of being competitive in the emerging global economy. How will Texas remain competitive if we don't properly educate our future leaders? We call on our state leaders to correct these heinous budget cuts.

Schools need better funding to increase the effective use of learning technologies in the classroom. The federal government eliminated the funding source of Title II D and states are increasingly eliminating the learning technology line item in state budgets. Some districts have followed suit! Help raise the awareness of funding EdTech appropriately by signing this petition.

Launch a complete, open and thorough investigation of the whole Student Loan debacle; especially lenders whose abusive practices are egregious and harmful to the credit of millions of former and current students.

In his recall, Scott Walker campaigned on the idea that public school teachers receive "entitlements" and that the "hard working tax payers" don't have these "entitlements." He is not only conveying a false message that public school teachers are not hard-working tax payers, but he is also conveying a message about their worthiness to society. If Scott Walker wants to bring Wisconsin together, it needs to start with him and he needs to recognize teachers for all they do to help Wisconsin grow as a community by visiting Wisconsin schools and working with teachers, not against them.

In 2008, two years before he entered the race for the US Presidency, Barack Obama wrote a book, the Audacity of Hope ,in which he minutely described his program for the country.In the section on Education he proposed to act on twenty five specific initiatives to raise the level of education in our country? The purpose of our petition is to ask how many of these twenty five initiatives have been successfully implemented and what were the results?

School children are now being expected to perform at a level one grade higher than they are actually. By then end of kindergarten, a child is expected to know 36 out of 40 sight words. Back in the early 70's, kindergartners were expected to do what was developmental appropriate for them - play most of the time.

This Petition is a popular request for President Obama to sign an Executive Order that will abolish Usury in all forms and methodology. Further, this Petition demands that Congress enact Flat Rate Taxation-immediately, to exact amity, comity, equity and parity and thereby rebuild the nation's economy--expediently.

As a student I have nearly $98,000.00 of Student most of are interest and after graudation I was unable to find a job which has caused my loans to go into default.... Meanwhile the banks who were wreckless get a bailout and we the back bone of these economy, mean the middle class left hanging with more debts....

The Benicia school district has decided to take AP Art History away from Pat Thomas. It isn't clear who will be teaching it next year, but it won't be Ms. Thomas. AP Art History was one of the best classes I took at Benicia High School. It seems completely ridiculous to continue the class and have anyone other than Ms. Thomas teach it. I know many people who were opened up to Art History through that class and who went on to major or minor in it in college. If you took the class, you know Ms. Thomas did her job, and did it well. And there is no one better to teach this class at BHS—please sign our petition to tell the Benicia Unified School District to keep Ms. Thomas as the APAH teacher. If you would like to get in touch with the decision makers directly, please e-mail Superintendent Janice Adams at [email protected] and School Board President Rosie Switzer at [email protected] ___________________________________________________ For those who have been asking, the reason for this change is: Due to, "declining numbers in the Art department," AP Art History is being moved over to that department to to be taught by a teacher there. Ms. Thomas would continue to be a teacher, but would teach a regular History class and an art teacher would take over her AP Art History Class.

Each year, thousands of teens and young adults fall victim to some type of assault, either physical or sexual in nature. Date rape, dating violence, and abductions are rampant in America, from small towns to urban areas across the country. I propose legislation including instruction in public schools on recognizing the potential for violence to occur in a relationship, gaining self-respect and confidence to deal with these situations, and having the ability to protect themselves should they find themselves victims to violence.

Florida Atlantic University has taken a severe $25 million budget cut. Classes have been cut and would-be graduating seniors have postponed graduation because of these cancellations and interruptions of services.

Our youth are not getting the education they need to become healthy, self-sufficient adults. The CDC estimates that 1 in 3 children born in the year 2000 will have diabetes at some point. Preventable diet-related diseases are the main cause of death in the U.S. and account for more than $150 billion in yearly health care costs. Public education operates on the pretense of preparing students for jobs and the reality of preparing them for tests (which it does rather poorly). Education reform is overdue, and increasing healthy living skills should be a main priority of our nation's schools. Every student should learn about nutrition, food sources and affordable healthy foods. Another component of food education is basic cooking skills; as Jamie Oliver has suggested, every young person should leave high school knowing how to cook 10 simple, inexpensive and healthy meals.